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local skier who was inspired by steep terrain was Jens Kieler (then Kuljurgis).
In March 1981, Kieler and my brother Gordy skied the north face of Mt. Shuksan,
the dominant peak visible from the Mt. Baker ski area. Like Chris Landry
on Liberty Ridge, they packed alpine skis and boots up the route and changed
out of their climbing boots before starting their descent. It was their first
try at skiing such terrain, and Gordy, although a champion freestyle skier
in the 1970s, found the experience unnerving. “It was not what skiing
was about for me,” he later remarked. Neither of the pair ever publicized
their descent and Kieler maintained that he had heard that “a Frenchman
did it prior to that” (an echo perhaps of the Sylvain Saudan legend).
Kieler was not deterred, however, and in subsequent years he explored steep
terrain on other Cascade summits. In 1981, with four friends, he made the
first known descent from the knife-edge summit of Eldorado Peak. He skied
the northwest face of Del Campo Peak in 1983 and in 1985 skied the northwest
glacier-Snow Gulch route on Whitehorse Mountain. Kieler also traversed the
Picket Range on skis in May, 1985, with my brother Carl and me, making an
ascent and descent of Mt. Fury along the way.
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Ski descent of the Lyman Glacier.
© Ben Manfredi. |
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The volcanoes that dominate the Cascade skyline are a natural attraction
to skiers seeking steeper terrain. In 1985, Dale Farnham skied the Kautz
Glacier and its chute above Camp Hazard on Mt. Rainier. In subsequent years,
he skied the route five times (all solo) and came to regard it as the best
ski descent on the mountain. In the spring of 1988, Farnham skied the Gibraltar
Chute, which he called “probably the most stupid thing I've ever done.” Following
a climb of the Gibraltar Ledge with the intention of skiing back down (or
across) it, he was enticed by the chute when he reached the junction of the
two routes. He dropped in and within a few turns found himself on a 50+ degree
slope that had narrowed to about the length of his skis. During the few minutes
he spent in the narrowest part of the chute he was struck by rockfall dozens
of times. He was relieved to emerge from the bottom in one piece. Farnham
is an accomplished climber, better known for difficult first ascents of rock
on Mt. Index, Bear Mountain, and Mt. Baring, and first winter ascents of
Liberty Crack and the east rib of Willis Wall.
From certain viewpoints, a few non-volcanic peaks in the Cascades stand out
as prominently as any volcano. Mt. Shuksan, viewed from the Mt. Baker ski
area, is one of them. In the late 1980s, during a routine spring ski ascent
of the Sulphide Glacier, Steve Vanpatten and Jim Witte, accompanied by three
friends, found the summit pyramid of Shuksan dusted by several inches of
new snow. Conditions seemed ideal, so Vanpatten and Witte carried their skis
to the top. They began their ski descent with a belay from their friends
above, but soon untied and skied the rest of the pyramid to the glacier below.
In 1993, George St. James descended Shuksan’s northwest couloir by
snowboard, the first recorded descent of that route on boards of any kind.
From Interstate 90 near Ellensburg, Mt. Stuart also dominates the skyline
as surely as any volcano. In the mid-1980s, Sprague Ackley and Hope Barnes
began a series of attempts to ski Ulrich’s Couloir, the striking gully
that drops directly from the summit of Stuart to Ingalls Creek. Barnes, captain
of the U.S. Women’s Olympic Rowing Team in 1984, was the first woman
to regularly seek out steep ski descents in the Cascades. In 1985, she and
Ackley skied the east cirque of Robinson Mountain in the Pasayten Wilderness
and four years later the north couloir of Oval Peak, a remote summit in the
Sawtooths east of Lake Chelan. The pair finally succeeded on Ulrich’s
Couloir in May 1990, just days after the route was first skied by Shelby
Burchett, Jeff Cvitkovic, and Scott Wicklund. Tragically, Hope Barnes was
killed with her friend Kathy Phibbs during an attempt to climb the Triple
Couloir on Dragontail Peak in January 1991.
A smattering of other steep routes were pioneered by the mid 1990s, but progress
was slow, with just one or two noteworthy descents being made each year.
Around 1997, the pace suddenly quickened. Several factors were responsible.
All-plastic telemark boots, introduced in the early 1990s but accepted slowly
at first, were recognized by nordic skiers to offer as much control on steep
terrain as alpine touring boots. Alpine touring equipment was becoming more
comfortable for long approaches and more reliable for steep terrain, and
national magazines such Couloir and Backcountry had for several years promoted
steep descents as a way to lure lift skiers into the backcountry, which was
good for the publishers and their advertisers. New blood was entering the
sport, and interest was shifting from long, remote high routes, which had
been a key frontier in the 1980s and early 1990s, to the vertical plane.
The most publicized descent of 1997 was the Edmunds Glacier headwall on the
Mowich Face of Mt. Rainier, a route that Dale Farnham and a friend had attempted
two years earlier. Armond DuBuque, Doug Ingersoll, Andrew McLean and my brother
Carl skied the route in mid-July. A Seattle TV station interviewed the skiers
a few days later, Ingersoll wrote a prominent article in Backcountry magazine,
and the team presented their slideshow at the national outdoor retailer convention
and elsewhere the following season. Not since Chris Landry’s ski of
Liberty Ridge in 1980 had a Cascade ski descent received so much attention.
Several other fine descents were made that year, including the Slot Couloir
on Mt. Snoqualmie, the Tahoma Glacier on Mt. Rainier (all but a few hundred
feet, during a traverse of the peak), and the northeast face of Mt. Curtis
Gilbert by young Yakima skiers Ben Manfredi and Charlie Berg. Also, around
this time, skiers descended from the summit rocks of Black Peak, near Rainy
Pass; Mounts Larrabee and Spickard, near the Canadian border; North Gardner
Mountain, near Mazama; and the Sherpa Glacier Couloir on Mt. Stuart.
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Jason Hummel skiing “Stormy Monday” on Mt. Adams. © Ben
Manfredi. |
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In 1998, skiers and snowboarders attacked the volcanoes with a vengeance.
David Orsatti snowboarded the Park Glacier headwall on Mt. Baker, edging
out a ski party led by Martin Volken by just days. Luke Edgar and Chad Kellogg
made a spectacular snowboard descent of the Success Glacier Couloir from
the top of Point Success on Mt. Rainier. On Mt. Adams, Ben Manfredi and Charlie
Berg skied the northwest face of the north ridge and the following year the
north face of the northwest ridge. For Manfredi, this began a fascination
with the north flank of Mt. Adams that would produce five new descents in
five years. In 2000, Rene Crawshaw and my brother Carl descended the north
ridge of Mt. Baker, making a rappel on skis over the prominent ice cliff
at mid-route. The allure of volcanic steeps showed its dark side on May 24,
1999, when David Persson, a Swedish skier living in Canada, died in a fall
while skiing Liberty Ridge.
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| Chronology
1990’s |
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• 1990, May 11
Mt Stuart, Ulrich’s
Couloir
Shelby Burchett, Jeff Cvitkovic, Scott Wicklund* |
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• 1990, July 1
Mt Adams, Adams Glacier
Bill
Frank |
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• 1991, July 6
Tricouni Peak, West
Couloir
Carl Skoog |
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• 1992 (circa), spring
Mt Rainier,
Wilson Headwall
Jim Collinson (with Ned Randolph) |
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• 1993, May 29
Mt Shuksan, NW Couloir
George
St. James* |
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• 1993 (circa), spring
Tenpeak Mountain,
North Couloir
Andreas Schmidt |
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• 1995, March
McClellan’s Butte,
North Couloir
Oleg Ashirov, Brian Povolny |
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• 1995 (circa), spring
Mt Adams,
Pinnacle Glacier Headwall
Matt Perkins |
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• 1996, April
Overcoat Peak, North Couloir
Andy
Dappen, Martin Volken |
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• 1997, January
Kaleetan Peak, S-E-NE
Spiral
Steve Martin |
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• 1997 (circa)
North Gardner Mountain,
NE Couloir
Sprague Ackley, Brian Povolny* |
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• 1997, April
Mt Snoqualmie, NW (Slot)
Couloir
Jan Kordel, Steve Martin* |
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• 1997 (circa), spring
Mt Larrabee, SW
Route
Steve Hindman* |
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• 1997 (circa)
Mt Stuart, Sherpa
Glacier Couloir
Jeff Mazinko, Shane Wilder* |
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• 1997, May
Mt Rainier, Tahoma Glacier
(partially on foot)
Rob Gibson, Aaron Horwitz, Darrel Howe* |
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• 1997, May 18
Black Peak, SW Route
Rene
Crawshaw, Andy Dappen, Carl Skoog* |
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• 1997, June
Mt Curtis Gilbert, NE Face
Charlie
Berg, Ben Manfredi* |
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• 1997, July 19
Mt Rainier, Edmunds
Headwall
Armond DuBuque, Doug Ingersoll, Andrew McLean, Carl Skoog* |
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• 1998 (circa), April
Mt Spickard,
True Summit
Steve Hindman* |
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• 1998 (circa), spring
Mt Cashmere, SE
Face
Gordon Briody |
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• 1998, June
Mt Baker, Park Glacier Headwall
David
Orsatti* |
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• 1998, July 3
Mt Rainier, Success
Glacier Couloir
Luke Edgar and Chad Kellogg* |
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• 1998, July
Mt Adams, NW Face of
North ridge
Charlie Berg, Ben Manfredi* |
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• 1999, February
Mt Snoqualmie, N
(Crooked) Couloir
Ben Haskell, Jim Sammet, Scott Schell, Martin
Volken |
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• 1999, July
Mt Adams, North Face of NW
ridge
Charlie Berg, Ben Manfredi* |
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• 1999, July 20
Mt Buckner, SW Route
Garth
Ferber, Lowell Skoog |
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